Mezen Bay—a key area for understanding Weichselian glaciations in northern Russia

Sediment successions in coastal cliffs around Mezen Bay, southeastern White Sea, record an unusually detailed history of former glaciations, interstadial marine and fluvial events from the Weichselian. A regional glaciation model for the Weichselian is based on new data from the Mezen Bay area and previously published data from adjacent areas. Following the Mikulinian (Eemian) interglacial a shelf‐centred glaciation in the Kara Sea is reflected in proglacial conditions at 100–90 ka. A local ice‐cap over the Timan ridge existed between 75 and 65 ka. Renewed glaciation in the Kara Sea spread southwestwards around 60 ka only, interrupted by a marine inundation, before it advanced to its maximum position at about 55–50 ka. After a prolonged ice‐free period, the Scandinavian ice‐sheet invaded the area from the west and terminated east of Mezen Bay about 17 ka. The previously published evidence of a large ice‐dammed lake in the central Arkhangelsk region, Lake Komi, finds no support in this study. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

新元古代冰期及其年代

新元古代在全球范围内出现了几期冰期事件,称之为“雪球地球”事件。这种剧烈的环境变化带来此后地球上生命演化的一次飞跃。“雪球地球”事件的核心是全球冰期的同时性,需要同位素地质年代学的证据。新元古代末期两次主要的冰期事件是Marinoan冰期和Sturtian冰期,其中Marinoan冰期结束于635Ma;Sturtian冰期可能发生在710～720Ma,已发表的年龄数据限定它在670Ma之前结束。Marinoan冰期后的Gaskiers冰期发生在580～590Ma。对华南的古城、铁丝坳、长安组、江口组等进行进一步精确定年,将对限定Sturtian冰期持续时间和Cryogenian、南华系的下限年龄具有重要意义。     

锦屏隆里地区剪切构造变形的初步研究

在隆里地区新元古界下江群中发育有剪切变形的构造，形成脆－韧性剪切带（过渡性剪切带）。按其产状可分为切层和顺层过渡性剪切带两类，具有较典型的脆性－韧性变形的宏观和微观特征。此类变形是地壳浅层次剪切构造作用产物，显示了江南造山带外带的特征     

Conflicting structural and geochronological data from the Ibituruna quartz-syenite (SE Brazil): Effect of protracted “hot” orogeny and slow cooling rate?

The Ibituruna quartz-syenite was emplaced as a sill in the Ribeira-Araçuaí Neoproterozoic belt (Southeastern Brazil) during the last stages of the Gondwana supercontinent amalgamation. We have measured the Anisotropy of Magnetic Susceptibility (AMS) in samples from the Ibituruna sill to unravel its magnetic fabric that is regarded as a proxy for its magmatic fabric. A large magnetic anisotropy, dominantly due to magnetite, and a consistent magnetic fabric have been determined over the entire Ibituruna massif. The magmatic foliation and lineation are strikingly parallel to the solid-state mylonitic foliation and lineation measured in the country-rock. Altogether, these observations suggest that the Ibituruna sill was emplaced during the high temperature (~ 750 °C) regional deformation and was deformed before full solidification coherently with its country-rock. Unexpectedly, geochronological data suggest a rather different conclusion. LA-ICP-MS and SHRIMP ages of zircons from the Ibituruna quartz-syenite are in the range 530–535 Ma and LA-ICP-MS ages of zircons and monazites from synkinematic leucocratic veins in the country-rocks suggest a crystallization at ~ 570–580 Ma, i.e., an HT deformation > 35My older than the emplacement of the Ibituruna quartz-syenite. Conclusions from the structural and the geochronological studies are therefore conflicting. A possible explanation arises from ⁴⁰Ar–³⁹Ar thermochronology. We have dated amphiboles from the quartz-syenite, and amphiboles and biotites from the country-rock. Together with the ages of monazites and zircons in the country-rock, ⁴⁰Ar–³⁹Ar mineral ages suggest a very low cooling rate: < 3 °C/My between 570 and ~ 500 Ma and ~ 5 °C/My between 500 and 460 Ma. Assuming a protracted regional deformation consistent over tens of My, under such stable thermal conditions the fabric and microstructure of deformed rocks may remain almost unchanged even if they underwent and recorded strain pulses separated by long periods of time. This may be a characteristic of slow cooling “hot orogens” that rocks deformed at significantly different periods during the orogeny, but under roughly unchanged temperature conditions, may display almost indiscernible microstructure and fabric.     

The eastern extent of the Barents–Kara ice sheet during the Last Glacial Maximum based on seismic-reflection data from the eastern Kara Sea

We present sub-bottom profiling (sparker and Parasound) results from the eastern Kara Sea, on the Eurasian Arctic margin, which enable the identification of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) ice extent. The analysed profiles show that glacigenic diamicton is ubiquitous at the seafloor, east of about 95°E and 78°N. The eastern margin of this diamicton is expressed in a conspicuous morainic ridge at the entrance to the Vilkitsky Strait, and to the south the diamicton projection aligns with the LGM limit mapped at the north-western Taymyr. The bottom of the Voronin Trough further north is also covered with diamicton and has numerous erosional bedforms, indicating a streamlined flow of grounded ice along the trough. Accurate dating of the diamicton is not attainable, but the correlation of pre-diamict sediments to well-dated sections in the Laptev Sea, and available ¹⁴C ages from sediments on top of the diamicton, indicate its LGM age. These results support the palaeogeographic reconstruction that assumes the extension of the LGM Barents–Kara ice sheet as far east as Taymyr. This configuration implies that LGM ice blocked the drainage of the Ob and Yenisey rivers on the Kara shelf. This inference is consistent with the presence of large (>100 km wide) lenses of basin infill adjacent to the southern margin of the diamicton. However, the limited distribution of the eastern Kara ice lobe, not extending on Severnaya Zemlya, suggests that the ice was fairly thin and short-lived: insufficient for the accumulation of the gigantic proglacial lakes that occurred during earlier glaciations.     

龙门山古冰川作用

汶川地震中央区域龙门山主山九顶山海拔4 984 m,山脊北坡有三处成排分布不少规模较小的冰斗-冰川谷地形,恢复当时雪线高度在4 100 m高度。根据其形态保存程度、古今雪线高度差等情况判断,应当是2阶段冰川作用遗存。据气温和降水资料,现在九顶山雪线高度在5 000 m,刚好超出九顶山顶部。故而九顶山3 800 m以上目前处于冰缘环境,石冰川、石环、融冻泥流等冰缘现象比较突出。九顶山不存在更老的冰川作用及其地貌遗存,是青藏高原以东5 000 m上下的高山只是在末次冰期时抬升跨越冰期雪线而发育冰川这一新观点的又一证据,也是青藏高原第四纪晚期剧烈抬升的又一证据。     

Glacial advances constrained by Be exposure dating of bedrock landslides, Kyrgyz Tien Shan

Numerous large landslide deposits occur in the Tien Shan, a tectonically active intraplate orogen in Central Asia. Yet their significance in Quaternary landscape evolution and natural hazard assessment remains unresolved due to the lack of "absolute" age constraints. Here we present the first ¹⁰Be exposure ages for three prominent (> 10⁷ m³) bedrock landslides that blocked major rivers and formed lakes, two of which subsequently breached, in the northern Kyrgyz Tien Shan. Three ¹⁰Be ages reveal that one landslide in the Alamyedin River occurred at 11–15 ka, which is consistent with two ¹⁴C ages of gastropod shells from reworked loess capping the landslide. One large landslide in Aksu River is among the oldest documented in semi-arid continental interiors, with a ¹⁰Be age of 63–67 ka. The Ukok River landslide deposit(s) yielded variable ¹⁰Be ages, which may result from multiple landslides, and inheritance of ¹⁰Be. Two ¹⁰Be ages of 8.2 and 5.9 ka suggest that one major landslide occurred in the early to mid-Holocene, followed by at least one other event between 1.5 and 0.4 ka. Judging from the regional glacial chronology, all three landslides have occurred between major regional glacial advances. Whereas Alamyedin and Ukok can be considered as postglacial in this context, Aksu is of interglacial age. None of the landslide deposits show traces of glacial erosion, hence their locations and ¹⁰Be ages mark maximum extents and minimum ages of glacial advances, respectively. Using toe-to-headwall altitude ratios of 0.4–0.5, we reconstruct minimum equilibrium-line altitudes that exceed previous estimates by as much as 400 m along the moister northern fringe of the Tien Shan. Our data show that deposits from large landslides can provide valuable spatio-temporal constraints for glacial advances in landscapes where moraines and glacial deposits have low preservation potential.     

Middle and late Pleistocene glaciations in the Campo Felice Basin (central Apennines, Italy)

The present paper refers to research conducted in the tectonic-karst depression of Campo Felice in the central Apennines (Italy), in which glacial, alluvial and lacustrine sediments have been preserved. Stratigraphic interpretations of sediments underlying the Campo Felice Plain are based on evidence obtained from nine continuous-core boreholes. The boreholes reach a depth of 120 m and provide evidence of five sedimentation cycles separated by erosion surfaces. Each cycle is interpreted as an initial response to a mainly warm stage, characterized by low-energy alluvial and colluvial deposition, pedogenesis, and limited episodes of marsh formation. In turn, a mainly cold stage follows during which a lake formed, and glaciers developed and expanded, leading to deposition of glacial and fluvioglacial deposits. The chronological framework is established by eleven accelerator mass spectrometer ¹⁴C ages and three ³⁹Ar-⁴⁰Ar ages on leucites from interbedded tephra layers. These age determinations indicate five glacial advances that respectively occurred during marine oxygen isotope stages 2, 3-4, 6, 10 and 14.     

一条Rodinia山脉——震旦纪的喜马拉雅山

笔者首次将海拔高度的概念及现代冰川理论 ,并结合古地磁资料 ,提出罗圈冰期时古天山 -秦岭山脉是一条大约位于赤道 -北回归线之间、由众多高山组成的 ,且许多山峰至少在 4 0 0 0m以上 ,已形成冰川、或许局部地区存在冰原的山脉 ,总的地理特征类似于今天的喜马拉雅山脉。而华北地块和库鲁克塔格地块是高原或平原 ,此二地块的南边是海域。古秦岭的南坡是现代秦岭的北坡。冰川融化时冰水携带的冰碛物向南流入海 ,所以华北地块上无冰碛物存在大地构造上 ,晋宁期以前 ,上述各地块相互独立。震旦纪时它们开始发生作用 ,秦岭地块和阿克苏—乌什地块分别向华北地块与库鲁克塔格地块汇聚 ,引起后者上升 ,逐渐发展成为山脉。至震旦纪末期 ,山脉上升到 4 0 0 0m以上 ,形成冰川。此后 ,山脉被剥蚀夷平 ,至寒武纪初 ,华北、库鲁克塔格两地块又降到海平面之下接受沉积 ,该山脉消亡。由此我们恢复了新元古代超大陆一条造山带 ,并推测新元古宙末期华北、华南、塔里木三大地块曾经汇聚在一起     

新疆阿尔泰山哈纳斯河流域及其邻域第四纪冰川作用

根据新疆阿尔泰山哈纳斯河流域及其邻域第四纪冰川遗迹的类型和特征,哈纳斯河流域第四纪时期至少发生过5次明显的冰川事件,即倒数第三冰期,倒数第二冰期,倒数第一冰期(末次冰期),新冰期和小冰期。其中,更新世的3次冰川作用规模巨大,倒数第三冰期的冰川呈半覆盖式,倒数第二冰期和倒数第一冰期时发育了长达96km以上的大型山谷冰川。古冰川属于冰温高、活动性大和侵蚀能力强的温冰川。从新到老,每次冰期的雪线下降幅度一次比一次大。